Everything we have is a gift! The Father entrusts His gifts to us in the measure we are capable of receiving them. If we wish to receive greater gifts from God, we need to prove ourselves trustworthy and capable of receiving them. I think of Jesus words in John 17:24, "Father, they are Your gift to Me" which reminds me that people are the gifts whom God entrusts to us. As every spouse and parent understands, the entrustment of persons is an exceptional gift that calls forth the great responsibility of love. To receive the gift of a person requires tenderness, gratitude, and compassion. Paraphrasing St. John Paul II, people are only ever meant to be loved for their own sake, never used as a means to an end.
When Jesus speaks of dishonest wealth in today's Gospel, I think He means using the gifts of God in a disposable way: always grasping for more, consuming without ever being satisfied, and even using other people for our own ends. Such misuse of God's gifts harms our human family, especially the poor and voiceless who don't have someone to stand up for them. Indeed, using people in this way treats them as disposables rather than unique and unrepeatable gifts from the Father. This misuse of our God-given freedom grieves our Father's heart.
Jesus says that we cannot serve both God and mammon. Mammon stands not just for the things of this world, but for the all-consuming attitude of greed our fallen human nature is prone to take towards them. We cannot serve both God and mammon for the same reason we cannot be both generous and greedy at the same time. We need to choose our master to serve: God whose mastery is generous and sets us free, or the consumptive greed whose mastery is cruel & enslaving. The Catechism of the Catholic Church #2339 soberly states in the Church's teaching on chastity, "The alternative is clear: either man governs his passions and finds peace, or he lets himself be dominated by them and becomes unhappy." Far more than the virtue governing our sexual appetite, chastity is the attitude of the heart which sees as God sees and calls us to rightly be the master of our passions and desires rather than letting our desires master us. Chastity gives true freedom to be excellent for God and for others.
The fundamental question is whether we will serve God or greed as our Lord? Serving God will make us generous and set our hearts free to do much good for the Kingdom. Serving greed will make us slaves to our desires. My prayer for all of us is to choose to serve the Lord in freedom this day, that we may commit our lives and our gifts to His providential care and guidance.
“Faithfully United” Stewardship Program Next week, you will be hearing about the upcoming “Faithfully United” Program at Saint Patrick Parish. This effort is very important as we move forward with the mission and vision of Saint Patrick Parish. As a parish family, we have changed so many lives in our community! In order to continue our mission and ministries, I encourage you to spend time in prayer and discussion with your family reflecting on the work we do. Our special Commitment Weekend will be celebrated on October 1 & 2. If you have any questions regarding the “Faithfully United” Program, please feel free to contact me.